CAUSEBOX Fall 2018 Welcome Box Review

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CAUSEBOX is a quarterly subscription box that features brands and items dedicated to doing good all over the world.Many featured brands donate a portion of proceeds to charities and/or may employ local artisans, use ethically-sourced goods, etc.

One thing I love about CAUSEBOX is that their boxes are designed by talented artists. Take a peek at the chic, painterly designs of this box, which were created by Yali Ziv!

This will be the first box that new subscribers receive, so long as you subscribe soon! If you subscribe at the annual level, you’ll be eligible for CAUSEBOX Custom, letting you personalize certain items in your box. Here’s how CAUSEBOX explains it:

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

About CAUSEBOX , A Charitable Women’s Lifestyle Subscription Box

The Cost: $54.95 on a quarterly basis, or $49.95 per box with an annual subscription

COUPON: Use coupon code WELCOME10 to save $10 off your first box or use coupon code WELCOME15 to save $15 off your annual subscription!

SPECIAL OFFER: Use code SWELL to get a free 17 oz. S’well Water Bottle! (Note that this coupon can’t be combined with any other offers or promotions!)

The Products: At least $150 worth of products for women from CAUSEBOX’s favorite socially-conscious brands.

Good to Know: Sign up for an annual subscription to qualify for CAUSEBOX Custom, which lets you hand-pick certain items in your boxes!

Ships to: US

CAUSEBOX Fall Welcome Box + CAUSEBOX Custom Picks

The box comes with an info card that features a welcome message and a product list. The color palette is super pretty, isn’t it?

CAUSEBOX also includes a booklet that’s filled with details about some of the brands featured in the box.

In addition to the brand features, they give lots of information that new subscribers might find interesting, such as details about B Corporations, sustainability, and clean beauty. (The copy editor in me is cringing at the missing “e” on the pink “Clean Beauty” page, hehe! But I’m grateful for the information nonetheless!)

I like getting this level of information from a subscription box—personally, when I have all of this context, I appreciate the items more than if I was just taking them at face value.

As mentioned earlier, this month’s box design was created by artist Yali Ziv. Ziv’s work is also represented on this postcard, which can double as an art print. I really like Ziv’s aesthetic. I could see framing these stylish ladies and hanging them on the wall of my home office (the denim-blue hues will complement the blue and navy throw pillows accenting the couch in that room), or just tacking it to the corkboard I have beside my desk at work.

This RealHer palette is vegan, paraben-free, and cruelty-free. I really like the tone of these hues. Golds and eggplants are my favorite colors to wear, as I feel like they have a warmth to them without being too reddish. The powder shadows are easy to work with and have a nice pigment to them—even the lighter colors. They’re not terribly creamy, but have a velvety quality that makes them easy enough to blend. The names of the colors are encouraging, too! Here’s what you see in the swatches above, going in order from the wrist down:

Fine

Fabulous

Fun

Strong

Proud

Courageous

Smart

Creative

Unique

Here’s the best part about this palette—it helps support the American Association of University Women!

Individual Zoya polishes are $10.00 each, so I assume the pricing is right on the money for this set. I wouldn’t have picked out these colors for myself (I tend to lean to brighter, bolder colors when I’m shopping for polish), but I am SO smitten with them!

The mauve color, in particular, is just gorgeous. It’s autumnal, classy, and feels very modern. I love the idea of pairing it with my favorite olive jacket or heather gray sweater. It’s just enough of a pop of color while still being kind of moody and casual.

Here’s how the colors look on. My nails need a manicure, stat! But I love the colors together.

To me, this candle has kind of a beachy vibe. Sandalwood always feels kind of cool and West Coast-y to me, and the rose elements make the fragrance even more romantic and pretty. I appreciate that this candle features soy wax and phthalate-free fragrance. And the amber color of the jar looks beautifully autumnal sitting on my bookshelf.

I love the fresh, rich fragrance of this hand cream. Plus, I just love that I got some nice hand cream! Cold air always zaps my skin of its moisture, so I’m happy to stock up on new handy bottles of lotion to tote around in my bag. This formula is gluten-free, vegan, and cruelty-free, too!

If you qualify for CAUSEBOX Custom (which happens when you sign up for an annual subscription), you’ll be able to pick whether you’d like these earrings in gold or silver! Other subscribers will just receive one or the other.

The gold earrings are SO my style. The silver ones are also pretty, though. The shape of these earrings is so unique, easy to wear, and versatile. They can add some shine to a simple t-shirt and jeans or complete a sophisticated party/dinner date outfit. Soko, the brand behind these earrings, supports marginalized artisans in the developing world, so this pair isn’t just a statement piece—they’re conversation pieces, too!

October Jaipur Vegan Leather Envelope Clutch – Listed Value $54.00

The next item that CAUSEBOX Custom customers can choose is this artisan-made vegan leather clutch, which is rather simple, design-wise, but timeless, too. You’ll either choose or receive a beige or black clutch—both have handy inner pockets, a magnetic snap closure on the front, and even a wallet-like set of card slots. I do kind of wish it had a detachable chain or wrist strap on it, but it’ll be great for special occasions nonetheless.

Which one do you like better? I think I’m leaning towards the beige one!

The last customizable item is this cotton scarf. CAUSEBOX Custom folks will be able to choose between the beige or the gray-blue color. This scarf is made from hand-loomed cotton in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The fabric is breezy and lightweight, which makes it seem a bit summery to me, but it’s big enough that it can wrap up into a warm, voluminous bundle that’ll keep me cozy when it’s tucked into the collar of my jacket.

I think I’m feeling the beige color in this one, too! Which one do you like best?

If you sign up with code SWELL, you’ll also receive an awesome S’well stainless steel water bottle! I love the pattern on this bottle—I got the “Lily Wood” style—with its blue tones and marbled design. The bottle is triple-walled and vacuum insulated so it helps keep water cooler longer. It does clang around a bit more than a plastic bottle, but it’s better for the environment and looks gorgeous sitting on my desk!

Verdict:CAUSEBOX is one of my favorite subscription boxes. Their items are reliably high-quality, and I LOVE that they feature brands with great stories and missions behind them. This box is a great way to get to know the subscription in general. I love how the assortment covers self-care and wellness, home decor, and style, too!

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Yes! But hurry—they go fast!

Anna loves collecting little treasures, be they pop-culture finds, handmade mementos, or new potions to put in her makeup bag. Beauty boxes got her interested in the subscription world, but now she’s swooning for all things kawaii!

All views in this review are the opinion of the author. My Subscription Addiction will never accept payment in exchange for a review, but will accept a box at no cost to provide honest opinions on the box. This post may contain affiliate/referral links. If you buy something, MSA may earn an affiliate commission. Read the complete My Subscription Addiction disclosure.

I ordered the Fall Welcome Box on September 25, and received a confirmation that it would be sent out by October 15. That date came and went, no email update, so I logged into my account. It showed the latest ship date would now be October 31. That date came and went too. Current update says the latest ship date is now November 23, a full 2 months after the order. Not sure how CauseBox thinks it will get returning customers with their horrible shipping times.

Same. I finally got my tracking number but it’s been a week and it still says USPS is awaiting package. I imagine I’ll never see it at this rate and I’m out the $$ since it sounds like they won’t refund.

I placed my order on 9/20. After several updated shipping dates passed with no box I finally emailed CS today. The last update I had was that it should ship by 10/31. This is the response to my inquiry today:
“Good news, though! It looks like your Fall Welcome box is ready for packing and will ship soon. You should receive a tracking link by next week, once the box is picked up by our shipping partner. Our goal is to have all the Welcome boxes out by the first two weeks of November.”

It actually did arrive today. I was alarmed because my box was totally smashed and ripped up, but everything inside was fine.

While I lucked out with the fall box and got my first choice for each variation, and the super pretty teal wood bottle, Lady Luck was not on my side with this one. Though I’m happy that she wasn’t. I didn’t care much about the clutch, typically I’d prefer black, but the beige will work well as a wallet/pouch in my tote. I also got the beige scarf. I don’t own any beige, so I like that it’s pushing me out of my comfort zone. The gold earrings are nice too, just not what i would usually go for. Finally I got a plain, matte, turquoise blue bottle. Compared to how pretty the other one, this was a let down. However, I didn’t use the code for it. I used the discount code instead. So…. free bonus? I’m happy.

Thinking of getting the Fall welcome box for my GF but still have a few questions…what are the nail polish names (so i can check if she already has them)? Also, if I use your code will I also be able to use the swell code?

You can only use one code at a time, sorry. Just be warned, the boxes are delayed again. I ordered mine more than a month ago and it has yet to ship. Boxes ordered between 9/14-9/20 should ship between 10/17-10/23. Boxes ordered between 9/21-10/17 should ship between 10/24-10/30. This is provided that there aren’t any additional delays, which I consider likely with this company. According to their website they are again, waiting for some of the products to arrive and are shipping in batches as these shipments are received. If you order today, I wouldn’t expect to get this box until mid-November.

And so it begins…
The last email I received said that my box would ship 10/17, so I eagerly logged in today to see if there were any updates. It used to say that boxes ordered when I ordered mine (between 9/14-9/20) would ship between 10/17-10/19. When I checked on my lunch break it said 10/19-10/23. Now I just checked again and it is saying 10/17-10/23. I have no faith in this company’s ability to stick to their ship dates.

I saw that last night. I was beyond irritated to be experiencing this nonsense again. I emailed CS asking to cancel and get a refund. Shockingly, which everyone else waits weeks to hear back from them, I got a response within an hour. I was quickly told that my request cannot be honored and that my box actually did ship on the 18th. They included a link to track my box, but according to that, my box hasn’t shipped. But apparently they have been having issues with their shipping partner. The whole thing just feels shady. But we shall see.

I am not ok with the customer service so far. I am an annual member and will not renew when the time comes. I have had issues with my last two boxes and this one is crazy late. I still was ok with it until something looked different on my account and I emailed to make sure I truly was down for the fall box. The answer that came days later from Causebox was “to please be patient” and did not even address the discrepancy I originally emailed about! I honestly feel they did not even check my account but rather sent a blanket statement. I don’t mind if you make a mistake or are late (even though by the looks of it my Fall box will not get to me until Nov if Im lucky enough to get what I paid for almost a year ago) but a company that is rude/dismissive I have no time for. Just needed to vent.

Thanks to all the comments I am NOT going to purchase this box, was ready to after seeing fall box on YT, but this is a different box than they received and honestly do not need another box with issues.

I was going get a year subscription for this box for my Birthday in November but after reading this comment i would go nuts. I already have the luxor box with the Gilt.com deal and that’s enough for me to worry about. Sad because this could a really really great box but CS is part of the thing and it’s important.

The last 3 boxes were all significantly delayed. I get that they are experiencing growing pains, but after the summer 2 fiasco, you’d think they’d re-evaluate things a little. They even used the same excuse for the Welcome Box delay that they used for Summer 2 “the ______ box sold out so fast, that this box went for sale earlier than we anticipated….” Let’s learn from past mistakes and wait until fully prepared to sell the new box. Even better, maybe just return to having one box per season. You could manage that.

I agree, one box per quarter and when it runs out its over for that season. But I would have to say that it is the almighty dollar they are after now. They are pissing people off by delaying the boxes and then not even responding to emails. I sent one and did not get a reply until my box was delivered. And now I have a bone to pick with them about the items in my box, they left out a swell bottle, and the hair mask was cracked and the tote looks stained. Fabulous, I can’t wait.

I had an annual subscription from Summer 2016 to Spring 2017, which I really enjoyed. In fact, the mud cup and the print from the Spring 2017 box have followed me through 4 different offices now. I wasn’t always a huge fan of the items in the box, but I never had issues with them arriving late or being in anything other than great condition when they arrived. They reeled me back in with the amazing looking Summer 2 box, and my experience was a disaster with CS being dishonest with me several times. I ended up canceling that box in September, but hoped it was a fluke with just that box. I considered going annual with the fall box, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m scared it’s going to arrive in awful condition. Then I was a total fool and also ordered the fall welcome box that maybe, just maybe, I’ll get before December, when initially they said they’d ship it the first week of October. Ugh!

FYI I was having issues with email (sent inquiry on 9/19) and also messaged them on Facebook. No response. I then tried to send my questions via message on Instagram and they were kind enough to reply with a few hours and they put me at ease about all of my concerns. For those of you still waiting on customer service replies, maybe that would be a good option for you. 😊

Gosh this reminds me of FFF so much. Same price and if you get a yeat you get to pick items. I hope they have a amazing BLACK FRIDAY DEAL! Hate waiting every 3 months to get a box and all boxes are doing that and seem to all ship in the same month ….maybe not? Totally hope they have a good deal. Ohh and I really hope Popsugar has a mystery box for the holidays and a great deal because I really really miss them. I just can’t bring myself to spend 75 on a box. I know there is a deal right now though but I’m gonna hold off.

I just got my regular fall box yesterday. I ended up really liking the scarf once I saw it in person, and it turned out to be perfect as I’d bought a gray dress from Gwynnie Bee and had no scarf to style it with.

I got the October Jaiper tote since it was the regular box – the fabric came wrinkly and the vegan leather distorted but I think it’s because they didn’t put any packing in it to keep it fluffed out. I’m surprised they are giving the vegan leather and fabric the same RV as the comparable design bags with genuine leather and canvas bags on the website, though – the quality of the materials isn’t there with this bag. However, the design itself is great and the bag has lots of interesting details that I like.

I got one of the really big S’Well bottles – same pattern (very pretty, the wood grain looks almost dark purple in some light!) but it’s rather cumbersome to use as a water bottle. It insulates great though – I filled it with hot tea yesterday around 5pm and this morning at 8am the tea was still warm enough to drink. I think I will use it more as an insulating carafe than a water bottle for holding hot tea or coffee to pour into a cup as I want.

I received tracking info on Sept 28 and my box arrived today. Sometimes the tracking method they use won’t update until it arrives at your local post office, but I would definitely contact them if you’ve been waiting that long. Hope your box arrives soon!

I got the camel colored bag and the hairmask. I did like the gray scarf way more in person than from photos! It’s nice quality and the gray isn’t a color I have among my many scarves. I also liked the stationary a lot better in person – a nice salmon color scheme and the paper was nice quality.

The bag I like a bit less in person. It was claimed RV $80 and the comparable design on the October Jaiper website is genuine leather and canvas – so I assumed these bags would be made of the same materials at the same RV. But this bag is vegan leather and the outer fabric is some form of thinner fabric, not what I would generally term canvas. The fabric on the bag came really wrinkled for me and the vegan leather pushed out of shape from the packing. I tossed all the box packaging into the tote in hopes it will fluff out better for now. I really liked the design of the bag (especially the little clip inside by the zipper pocket to hold keys or something – very nice touch! but the quality doesn’t look up to par with their website bags. I wish they’d advertised it as vegan leather since the website bags all seem to use genuine leather and that’s a large part of why I bought the box – and it would have felt a bit less like a bait and switch. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine when sub boxes advertise an item from a designer but the materials used for it are different/cheaper – while still claiming the same RV.

Overall though, I liked the box and was very impressed with it. I look forward to spoilers for the winter box.

Getting a little testy with all the delays with Causebox. Mine supposedly shipped on 9/28, but continued to say that USPS was still waiting for the box up until yesterday. It’s at the regional USPS distribution center now, so hopefully I’ll receive it tomorrow, maybe monday? Kind of a bummer though, since I’ve had the last 3 weeks off work for surgery, and before I left they were saying “they ship out this week!” I thought for sure I’d have my new tote and water bottle for work before my return. The awesome items and great selections for annual members make me want to spring for an annual subscription, but their lack of organization makes me too nervous for that kind of investment.

I despise USPS. They don’t follow the same regular tracking guidelines as FedX or UPS. Once delivered to your neighborhood post office they stop tracking. You may know it got to your post office but it doesn’t tell u if out for delivery or what happens afterwards. I avoid using them at all costs. Had a number of packages never make it to me because of this. And they don’t lift a finger to help investigate. I wish CauseBox wild not use USPS, there would be much better delivery service with another mailing service. Just my 2 cents 🙂

I’ve been a CauseBox subscriber for a while and they always have incredible items. There’s been very few items I’ve not used. It wasn’t due to quality but rather just not my preference. I can’t recommend them enough!!! On their web page are sotes to buy items and more. Some sites even have subscriptions!!!

Even if the earrings at Target look identical, they definitely don’t support artisans in the developing world, as the Soko brand does. You can find similar, cheaper variants for most items found in Causebox–a huge draw in buying the box is supporting the missions behind the brands.

Using Anna’s price breakdown, you really are not paying all that much more at $9.63. Plus her price breakdown didn’t include the Swell bottle. If you add that I’m sure you’d be very close to $7 for the Soko earrings.